Chaos Ensues
by Coaloki
Summary: The next generation accidentally get sent back in time... with some Harry Potter books?
1. The Accident

_AN- This is my first fanfiction, so please be patient! :)_

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, blah blah blah...

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><p><span>1-The Accident<span>

Even before the yellow smoke and mutant owls, Dominique Weasley's day was far from ordinary. It started much earlier than normal, 5:03 in the morning to be exact. She was shaken awake, none too gently, by her cousin Fred. Now, while Fred was one of her favourite cousins, not to mention one of the only people who actually seemed to like her more than her sister, he should know that even for him waking her up too early would bring consequences. "W-What? Whaddaya wan'?" Dominique mumbled sleepily, rubbing her eyes as she shoved Fred off of her. Seemingly undeterred by his sudden topple to the floor, Fred leaped back to his feet, strangely awake for 5:00 in the morning as he landed on her again. Her half-awake brain wondered what had happened to get him up this early (or more appropriately, what he had done), and the part of her that was dedicated to self-preservation immediately kicked into overdrive, planning how to best avoid whatever prank he had conjured up. "Whaddid you do?" She was surprised when Fred rolled off of her, sitting up besides her on the bed and staring at her with wide eyes.

"Don't you remember what day it is?" he asked incredulously. Dom pulled herself upwards into a more vertical position, still struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Um… April 10th?" she yawned. Fred nodded, speaking to her slowly as if she was a confused five year old.

"Yes, very good, Dommity. And what happened on April 10th?" She blinked, completely bewildered. Was it her parents' anniversary or something? The date certainly seemed familiar, but her tired mind couldn't place its importance. Fred II waited a few more seconds before sighing. "It's your birthday, you idiot." Dominique shot up back into an upright position, suddenly wide-awake.

"It's my _**what?**_" she asked incredulously, everything suddenly clicking into place.

"And she finally gets it!" he cheered, jumping off of her bed and dancing around the room. His enthusiasm was contagious, and soon Dominique found herself awake enough to at least stand up and look around.

"Why did you wake me up so early, anyway? Don't I deserve to sleep in on my birthday?" she glanced over at her alarm clock, which now read 5:15am.

"Oh," he shrugged, "your boyfriend and his twin wanted to see you, they said they had something to show you."

"Lorcan's not my boyfriend,' Dom muttered, rolling her eyes. She didn't ask why they wanted to see her this early instead of at the surprise birthday party she knew was being thrown later, but she had long since given up trying to figure out the reasons behind why the Scamanders did anything.

"Anyway, they asked me to tell you to go to 'the place'," he made quotation marks in the air around the two words, "Apparently you know where that is…"

"Okay, give me a minute to get dressed," she commanded, shoving Fred out her door before he had time to protest.

The grey light of dawn was already seeping through the large window over her bed, illuminating the room with a harsh, cold light. Shivering slightly, Dominique quickly pulled on a pair of tan shorts and a grey sweater over top of her shirt, carelessly tucking up her blonde hair in her favourite olive green beret as she ran to the door. After she had tiptoed past her family's bedrooms, she ran out the door and looked around for Fred. He was waiting for her by the old apple tree, lounging around in the branches like he had all the time in the world. "Oh, come on, you." Dom muttered, grabbing his foot and yanking it down. Fred yelped as he tumbled out of the tree, grumbling under his breath about homicidal cousins as she pulled him along.

"Where are we going? Are we there yet? I'm tired!" he complained for the fifth time in the last three minutes.

"For Merlin's sake, we've been walking for barely a few minutes! If you don't want to come, just go home!" she snapped, stopping so suddenly that he ended up skidding past her. "Besides, we're already here."

"Here?" Fred asked, looking around as if he expected a giant tree fort to jump out from behind the cluster of trees. "Where?" Ignoring him, Dom silently pressed a finger to her lips, before casually wandering over to a nearby oak tree and looking around nonchalantly. All of a sudden, she quickly whipped out her wand, shooting a stunning spell straight upwards. Fred nearly jumped out of his skin when a body fell out of the tree, landing with a thump in a tangle of blonde hair and long limbs.

"Oh, hello Lysander!" Dom feigned surprise, a sarcastic smile tugging at her lips, "fancy seeing you here." The boy on the ground didn't respond, and just raised his head and glared at her reproachfully. "Of course," she continued in a slightly raised voice, "anyone else stupid enough to try and ambush me should know that Auntie Ginny has recently taught me some _very_ useful hexes, which I'm just dying to try out…" She trailed off and cocked her head to one side as if listening for something. After a few seconds, there was a rustling in the leaves, and Fred just had time to look up with an alarmed expression before another blonde-haired and grey-eyed boy dropped on top of him. This boy was identical to the other in every way, except as soon as he landed he leaped back to his feet, brushing the dirt off his clothes as if falling out of trees was a regular occurrence. He turned around, starting slightly as he saw his brother and Dom. "Why, Dominique, whatever are you doing outside at this time of day?" he asked innocently, stepping away from Fred so the other boy could get up. Dom scoffed, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Oh, don't give me that, Lorcan, I know you were behind this. Was the thing you wanted to show me just a set-up to lure me into an ambush?"

Lorcan glanced at Fred as if wondering whether he could be trusted or not, before shrugging and turning back to Dom, his silvery-grey eyes shining with mischief. "I was just getting to that. You'll never guess what we found in our mother's room…" He looked from side to side as if trying to see where he had put it before Lysander cleared his throat softly, holding up spider-like object from where he was sprawled on the grass. "Right!" Lorcan grabbed the bizarre contraption from his twin's hands, holding it up triumphantly. Dominique eyed the thing warily. It didn't look dangerous, but you never really knew with her Aunt Luna. Still, she did not think it was wise to ask about the gadget, at the risk of looking ignorant or an idiot. Fred, of course, had no such qualms.

"What in Merlin's name is _that_?"

Lorcan smirked in that annoying way that told you he knew something you didn't. "Why, I thought it would be obvious. I mean, judging by the volume of the major segment, added with the stature of the supporting legs, any normal person would have no difficulty in at least placing an educated guess-"

Dom groaned, rolling her eyes. For some reason, every time Lorcan and Fred started talking to each other they each made it their goal to annoy the other person in whatever way they could. For Lorcan, that meant talking non-stop and using long, confusing vocabulary words, where as Fred simply settled on acting as dense as possible (then again, it did seem to come naturally). Exchanging an exasperated look with Lysander, she stepped forward, clearing her throat loudly.

"So, what is it?"

Lorcan broke off mid speech, and turned back around to face her, a mixture of smugness and pride written all over his face. "It's a time machine, of course."

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><p>"Dom! Dom! You'll never guess what we got you!"<p>

Dominique sighed loudly, turning around from where she had just been about to take some food. It was quite a bit later on in the day, and her 'surprise' party had just started. So far it was pretty much the same as every year, where her mother none-too-subtly suggested that she go outside for a few minutes for some fresh air, she pretended that she didn't notice all her relatives arriving, and then acted completely surprised when she walked in to a room full of people and a big 'Happy Birthday' banner hanging from the wall. Still, she'd hoped that she might actually be able to relax a few seconds before she was interrupted.

As per usual, her hazel-haired cousin had a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, Fred and Louis on either side of him, and a totally unconvincing look of innocence on his face.

"Books?" she suggested, looking pointedly at the three novels clutched in her brother's hands.

"Dominique, Dominique," James drawled, shaking his head in mock disappointment, "have we taught you nothing? Did you really suspect, even for a second, that we would stoop to that level of desperation? Books!" He scoffed the last word, ignoring her eye roll at his dramatics. "These are not mere books, my dear ignorant cousin. These are treasures, legends, explanati-"

"All right, all right!" she interrupted hastily before he could continue. "But aren't presents supposed to be opened at the end of the party?"

James seemed to wilt with disappointment for a moment, but then brightened up again once he had caught sight of something in the crowd. "Come! I have sighted some mistletoe! We must protect the innocents from a nargle invasion!" he cried, disappearing into the crowd of gingers, Louis and Fred vanishing after him.

"What the..?" she muttered, shaking her head slightly before turning back to the food table. She was just reaching for some treacle pudding (Uncle Harry's favourite), when there was another tap on her shoulder. Sighing with annoyance, she put the pudding back down and turned around again. Lorcan and Lysander were standing there; Lysander holding the 'time machine' and Lorcan with a small, ruffled owl perched on top of his head. They greeted her with wide, identical grins, the owl hooting in indignation when it almost got crushed in a hug. Twittering with discontent, it flew off over the crowd with a strange, slightly lopsided flight. Seeing Dom's look of confusion, Lysander quickly explained, "Mum found him in the garden, one wing's smaller than the other. She told us to bring him here-"

His explanation was cut off by a sharp bang created by Aunt Hermione, who started to speak once everyone was silent. "Can everyone please gather round?"

Casting one last forlorn look at the still-warm treacle behind her, Dominique followed everyone else to the sitting room, cramming in between Louis and Lorcan on one of the sofas. At her questioning glance, Lorcan leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Sander's gone to feed the owl." She nodded, and then focused her attention back on her aunt, who was standing in the middle of the carpet clearing her throat.

"Now, as you're all aware, today is a very special day for one of us. It's not everyday you turn 16, and today we're here to celebrate Dominique's birthday! Why, it seems like only yesterday she was just learning to talk…"

As Hermione went on talking about her first words and steps, Dom was looking around the room. She caught Teddy's eye, and he winked at her before turning his attention back to the speaker. She carried on gazing around the room, seeing who was here. There was Teddy, Fred, James, Lorcan, no Lysander, but he would be back soon, Lucy, Molly, all of her other cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents, as well as her brother Louis, and her sister Victoi- Wait! Where was Victoire? She could have sworn she was just standing next to Louis! Her eyes swept back across the room, but her sister's familiar silvery-blonde head was nowhere to be seen. Then, all of a sudden, as if her thoughts had summoned her, Victoire came bursting back into the room, cutting off the speech as she wildly waved a letter in the air, her face flushed with excitement. "I got it!" she squealed, jumping up and down like a little kid, "I've been accepted into Auror training!" At almost exactly the same time, everyone rose to congratulate her, and many shouts of 'I knew you could do it!' and 'Oh, isn't this great!' echoed around the room. Dominique, who was the only person still sitting apart from Lorcan, couldn't help but feel slightly ill. Once again, her moment had been stolen away from her by her older, and much more perfect sister. It had been happening as long as she could remember; when she took her first steps, her sister learnt how to do cartwheels. When she got a perfect score on a quiz, her sister got all O's on her O.W.L.s. She started to feel her eyes tearing up, and stood up abruptly, not wanting to cry in front of everyone. Dom started for the door, weaving in between all the people already planning how to celebrate Victoire's newest achievement, and ignored Lorcan's shouts behind her. She stomped towards the door, having to step to the side so that her relatives, who didn't even seem to notice her now, didn't knock her over. Making it to the door, she opened it just in time to crash into Lysander, who was fiddling with one of the dials on the machine while he walked, the owl on his messy blonde head swaying from side to side every time he took a step.

"Woah!" he cried as the time machine was knocked out of his hands, and he was knocked backwards. "Why are you-" he stopped talking as soon as he saw her face. Seeming to understand immediately, he pulled her into a friendly hug, patting her back reassuringly. Being one of her best friends, he knew all about her issues with her sister. The door opened again, and a small red head skipped through, stumbling to a halt as soon as she saw them and flushing red.

"Sorry," Lucy mumbled sheepishly, nervously pushing her glasses further up her nose as Lysander and Dominique immediately jumped apart. The owl pecked Lysander's head to express his annoyance at being jostled around so much, and Lysander jumped for a second time, having forgotten about the small feathery creature currently resting in his hair. Unfortunately, this time he stepped partly on the time machine he had dropped, cracking one of the leg-like things protruding from it. Almost instantaneously, thick yellow smoke began to flood from the crack, surrounding them with a smell like burnt toast.

"Oh Merlin-" he just had time to say, before the three children and the owl disappeared in a flash of light.


	2. Introductions

AN- Sorry I haven't updated in a bit; I've had loads of homework. Just a heads up, I'm not going to be able to update at all until at least the 23rd, because I'm going away for half-term and will not have a computer available. Thanks to all the people who added this/me to their favourites/story alerts/author alerts!

This chapter isn't my best, so I apologize if it seems a bit boring or repetitive at time. I was just aiming to introduce all of the next gen in this chapter, but I promise the next one will be better!

Disclaimer: I own Harry Potter. Why are you looking at me like that? I'm serious! *****huffs*Oh fine, I'm lying, my name isn't J.K. Rowling…

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><p><span>2- Introductions<span>

"Now, grip your wand firmly- move it up a bit higher, Dean- and repeat after me. _Aq-_"

"What's that?" A vague, dreamy voice interrupted him in the middle of the incantation, and not wanting to be distracted by another of Luna's imaginary creatures, Harry pretended that he didn't hear. He was cut off, again, after a second when Fred, who had turned to see what Luna was pointing at, shouted out,

"What is it?"

That got everyone's attention, and they all turned around to see what was going on. A faint, glowing light was pulsing gently in one of the corners, and there was a dusty yellow mist emanating from the center. The light grew steadily brighter, and there were a few gasps around the room as three figures appeared in the middle of the fog. After a few seconds of shocked silence, the light had faded and the smoke had disappeared, and the three teenagers that were standing in the corner seemed oblivious to all the people staring at them, not to mention the 29 wands that had automatically been pointed at them. Harry took advantage of the temporary ignorance of the newcomers to examine them, and maybe determine if they were a threat or not. There were two girls, one of them looking slightly embarrassed, with rectangular glasses and shoulder length red hair, where as the other looked annoyed, a dark green beret draped haphazardly over her blonde hair as if it had been almost knocked off. She crossed her arms, and glowered at the third teen, this one a boy who looked remarkably like a male Luna, complete with a similar dreamy, indifferent look on his face. Many of the D.A. members couldn't help but feel impressed; if the blonde girl had been glaring at them like that, they would be running as fast as they could in the opposite direction.

"_LYSANDER! _What in Merlin's name did you _do?_" The taller blonde girl shrieked, whipping out her wand and pointing it at 'Lysander'. The strange owl, which up until now had been dozing on the boy's head, took flight away from the noise and perched on Luna instead. The smallest, red-haired girl was watching the owl's strange uneven flight, and her eyes widened in alarm when she noticed all the people (not to mention wands) watching them.

"Um, Dom, Sander?" she spoke up timidly, still staring at the large group of people, many of which she recognized. The other two teenagers ignored her.

"I mean, who brings a freaking _time machine_ to a birthday party? And then you just _had_ to go step on it-"

"Dom! I think you should see this…" the ginger girl raised her voice slightly, but she was still ignored.

"-and you transport us here! Wherever 'here' is… When we get back home, you are so going to regret-" the blonde girl kept on ranting at the boy, who now had an amused expression on his face, as if this sort of thing happened a lot.

"DOMINIQUE! Shut up a minute and look!" the small girl finally yelled, effectively gaining their attention. Once they were looking at her, she pointed at the group of people, who were now watching the three of them slightly incredulously. Both of them gasped and cursed at the exact same time, before turning and glaring at the other.

"This is _your fault!_" they both yelled, but before one of them could start screaming again, Harry stepped forward, still keeping a hold on his wand.

"Who are you?" he demanded. He saw a flash of recognition in all of their eyes, and inwardly sighed. _Of course they'll recognize me, the boy-who-lived, or whatever the prophet's calling me now._ His thoughts were interrupted when the small red-haired girl squealed, and ran forward crying 'Uncle Harry!' The blonde girl, Dom, lunged forward, grabbing the back of her jacket and pulled her back, before examining him suspiciously. "Who are you?" he repeated, this time in confusion. The three teens exchanged looks, before the boy stepped forward, cleared his throat, and stated in a dreamy voice, "This is going to sound strange, but we're from the future."

The entire D.A. stared at them speechlessly for a moment, before Fred and George burst into laughter, causing the three 'time travelers' (yeah right) to turn and look at them. Once again, they seemed to recognize them, and the youngest girl piped up, "Why are there two Uncle Georges?"

"Shut up, Lucy!" the blonde girl hissed, before straightening up and addressing the D.A. "What do we have to do to convince you? Oh, wait, I know." She turned to Ron, who up until this moment had been gaping at them, and stated, "Scabbers, Pettigrew, animagus… Ringing any bells?" If it was possible, Ron's mouth dropped even more.

"Wha- How do you know that?" he demanded, staring at them like they were aliens. Instead of answering, the girl turned to Hermione, and said,

" Second year, polyjuice, cat hair? Sound familiar? And Unc- Harry, your cupboard at Privet Drive?" she smirked at their astonished looks.

"H-How do you know all that?" Harry finally stuttered out. She rolled her eyes.

"I told you, we're from the future. Do you want me to say anymore, like how your wand and Voldy's had twin cores-"

"No, no, I believe you!" he said hastily, casting a nervous glance at his friends, but they seemed to be too busy staring at the three time travelers to have heard. "Um… Maybe some introductions are in order?" he suggested, but before he could continue, someone else stepped forward.

"Wait, so just because they said some random words, you're just going to believe them? Well, _I_ for one want some actual proof." Zacharias Smith crossed his arms defiantly. Once again, the three travelers exchanged looks. 'Lysander' stepped forward, and completely ignoring Zacharias, turned to the rest of the D.A.

"Okay, let's see, this is the room of requirement? Great. You group of people are called Dumbledore's Army, D.A. for short, a secret defense group formed because Umbridge won't teach you to defend yourselves. Some of the original name ideas were the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group, and the Defense Association. Is that enough 'actual proof' for you? He addressed the last part to Smith, who huffed _(AN- lol, Hufflepuff jokes…)_ and stepped backwards into the crowd. "Okay, introductions…" He looked nervously back at the blonde girl, who shrugged, saying,

"We're going to have to obliviate them before we leave, anyway."

Nodding, the boy turned back to the others. "I guess I'll start… My name's Lysander Scamander, I'm 15 and in Ravenclaw, my parents are Luna and Rolf Scamander." Luna looked at him with vague interest, a small smile on her face. "Oh, and that's Midge." Lysander added, gesturing to the miniature owl currently stationed on top of Luna's head. Next, the small redhead stepped forward.

"My name is Lucy Cedrella Weasley, I'm a 3rd year Ravenclaw, my mother is Audrey Weasley, and my father is Percy Weasley-" she paused and glanced nervously at the Weasleys in the room, who had all hissed and muttered under their breath when they had heard the name of their estranged brother, "-I was named after my aunt Lucille* and my great-grandmother Cedrella." Nervously pushing her glasses farther up her nose, she looked from Fred and George, who were both glaring at her, Ron, who looked as if he wasn't sure what to think, Ginny, who looked both relieved, annoyed, and confused at the same time, and her feet. Ginny was the first to move, stepping towards Lucy and clearing her throat. The smaller girl's eyes flickered upwards for a second, looking terrified as if she thought Ginny was going to hit he. She looked utterly bewildered then, when Ginny walked up to her and gave her a large hug.

Lucy smiled slightly, relieved. "So, the prat comes back then?" Ginny asked loudly, stepping away from her future niece. When Lucy nodded, the Weasley twins immediately dropped their glares, looking slightly ashamed. Dominique stepped forward, drawing the attention back to her.

"I'm Dominique Apolline Weasley, but please, call me Dom. I'm a fifth year Ravenclaw, same as Sander, and I play beater on the house team, like my Uncle George…and Fred." She added hastily, attempting to cover up her mistake. Luckily nobody seemed to notice, but she didn't see both Hermione and Luna's eyes narrow suspiciously. "My parents are Bill and Fleur Weasley," at her mother's name, Harry elbowed Ron subtly and he flushed bright red, "and my best friends are Lorcan and Sander."

Hermione had just opened her mouth when there was another flash of light, this one only lasting a second, and a whole group of people was dumped ungracefully on the ground. The D.A. quickly counted thirteen heads, a few of them gawking openly at the tall man with the bright blue hair. Similar to the original three time travelers, none of the newcomers seemed to have noticed the large number of people already in the room. Harry did a fast scan of the room; there were two ginger girls helping a boy with thick, reddish brown hair off the ground; two tall boys were snickering about something together, one with hazel hair and brown eyes, the other with caramel coloured skin and dark hair, a third boy with silvery blonde hair standing next to them examining a book; there was a familiar looking white-blonde boy slumped on the ground next to (Harry did a double take) an almost exact replica of himself; the blue haired man seemed to be checking if everyone was okay along with a beautiful girl with hair that seemed to shimmer as she moved; another caramel-skinned dark-haired child, this one a girl, was surveying the scene, and a boy that was identical to Lysander seemed to be completely unruffled by the sudden change of scenery, choosing to gaze around thoughtfully.

It was the boy who could only be Lysander's twin that noticed the D.A. first, letting out an inaudible gasp. The dark girl beside him noticed his surprise, and turned around to see what he was gaping at. She was slightly more vocal with her shock, letting out a piercing shriek once she saw them all. "Merlin's beard, Roxy, do you have to be so loud?" the boy that looked like her, and strangely seemed similar to Fred and George at the same time, complained, rubbing his ears in pain. "I think you just broke my brain." Seemingly shocked by the lack of a witty retort, the boy turned to see what had happened, gaping at the crowd of people silently watching them. "James! Oi, James!" the boy whispered, elbowing 'James' in the ribs to get him to turn around. It was a chain reaction, and soon everyone in the room was silently watching each other. After a few more seconds of awkward silence, the girl who had shrieked shrugged and walked over to the D.A.

"Hello!" She grinned confidently at them. "I know most of you, but you don't know me, so I'm Roxanne! Why are there two of dad?"

The blue-haired man groaned and smacked his forehead. "Roxy!"

"Oh!" Roxanne gaped at Fred, her eyes widening. "You're Fr- Uncle Fred!" she quickly corrected, rearranging her features in an unconvincing smile. "I, uh, haven't seen you in a bit!" The white-blonde boy smirked slightly, whispering 'nice save' and giving her a sarcastic thumbs up when she shot him a death glare. "Oh shut it, Malfoy." She muttered, stepping back into the crowd.

"Right!" the blue haired man said, clapping his hands together to get everyone's attention. "Normally I would create some kind of excuse, and then go to see the Headmistress to explain, but judging by the…circumstances," at that he shot a stern look at Lucy, Roxanne, Lysander and Dominique, who all looked apologetically back, "I feel the best thing to do is to introduce ourselves. Roxanne, you might as well start."

Roxanne beamed at him, skipping back out in front and dragging the other boy with her. "Roxanne Angelina Weasley, Gryffindor chaser, prankster extraordinaire, and the only daughter of George and Angelina Weasley," she bowed, shoving the boy beside her forward.

"Fred Fabian Weasley, fifth year Gryffindor beater, joint heir of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes at your service!"

"Woah, woah, wait! Not only does my twin have kids with my girlfriend, but also his children inherit our future joke shop? What about my kids, what do they get?" Fred the first questioned, missing the mixture of sad and apprehensive looks exchanged between all the people from the future.

The Harry lookalike stepped forward. "You, er, don't have any children. You say you don't want to be tied down by marriage and responsibility." Fred looked disappointed, but seemed to accept this answer.

Before anyone else could speak up, the tall hazel haired boy shouted out, "This is taking too long! Lets just say our names and speed it up a bit!" Nobody objected, so he continued. "I'm James Sirius Potter." Harry opened his mouth to ask a question, but James quickly added, "No one interrupt!" and Harry closed it again.

"Lily Luna Potter,"

"Al Potter,"

"Rose Jane Weasley,"

"Hugo Victor Weasley,"

"Lorcan Scamander,"

"Molly Amelia Weasley,"

"Victoire Gabrielle Weasley,"

"Louis William Weasley,"

"Teddy Lu- Potter," Teddy seemed to change his mind halfway through stating his name.

"Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy,"

"WHAT! What the bloody hell is a Malfoy doing here!" Ron cried out in outrage, but was shot a glare so intense from Rose and Al that he cringed away from them, shutting his mouth.

"Right!" James beamed, "Now that we're all introduced, I think it's time we-"

"Wait, I have a question." Dom interrupted, "how did the rest of you get here?"

Teddy shrugged. "Lorcan was going to go look for you, but as soon as he opened the door this kind of yellowish fog stuff floated through the doorway and surrounded us, and well, here we are."

"All right, this is getting boring, I want to give Dommity her present!" Fred the second whined, taking the books from Louis. Dom rolled her eyes, both at her cousin's childish behavior and his name for her, but sighed in defeat, taking the three books from his hands. Glancing at the first cover, she froze, her eyes wide. Flipping the book over, she read the back, the expression of disbelief steadily growing on her face.

"Where did you get these?" she demanded, examining the other two books frantically. Everyone else was peering over her shoulder, attempting to see what books they were. Finally, Roxanne got too impatient and grabbed the top book from her hands.

"_Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix_," she read out, ignoring the various gasps from around the room. _"Harry Potter is due to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is desperate to get back to school and find out why his friends Ron and Hermione have been so secretive all summer. However, what Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down… _" she shrugged. "Sounds interesting. Let's read it!"

"What? I don't want my every move read out to the whole room!" Harry protested, casting a subtle glance at Cho before looking back at Roxanne.

Hermione bit her lip, indecision on her face. "Harry, think of it this way. If this is your fifth year, it will have the future in it! Not to mention the other two books. They could tell you how to defeat V-Voldemort!" she stuttered a bit saying the name, but ignored the flinches from everyone except Harry, Luna, the future kids, Ginny, Fred and George. Harry held her gaze defiantly for a few more seconds, before sighing in defeat and backing away.

"Great!" Roxanne beamed, bouncing up and down with excitement. "I want to read first!" As soon as she finished speaking, bean bags, chairs and sofas appeared all around the room, and she plunked down on the nearest bean bag. "Well, come on then!"

Fred snorted as he sat down. "We're reading with strangers, and we haven't attacked them or put veritaserum in their drinks. I can just hear Mad-Eye yelling 'Constant Vigilance' in my ear!"

George snickered along with his twin, "Yeah, I don't know how Tonks can stand it."

At that, Teddy's head snapped up. "Tonks?" he repeated weakly, "As in Nymphadora Tonks, the auror?" Fred and George nodded, looking confused. "I just- Never mind. Read, Roxy!"

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><p>AN- Oh gosh, that was terrible. Dx Please forgive me for my terrible ending, it's late, but I want to post this tonight.<p>

*I'm going to say that Lucille is Audrey's sister, so she's Molly and Lucy's aunt.

Review! Please! I'll give you virtual cookies! *holds up the bribe jar filled with cyber cookies*


	3. The Beetle at Bay

AN- Sorry this took so long! You have no idea how long it takes to write one of these… The chapters are so long! I will now be updating a minimum of once a month, sometimes more, because I'm also writing a Percy Jackson read the books, and it's easier to write that one because the chapters are shorter. Anyway, we're finally starting to read the books, so enjoy! There are so many members of the D.A., I apologize if there are some of them that don't say anything in this chapter, I will try and incorporate as many as I can.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the words in bold.

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><p>Teddy could tell that everyone had about a million questions that they wanted to ask, but he wasn't sure how much could be told without permanently altering the time stream, so he motioned for Roxy to read. She flipped to the first chapter, read the title, and looked up. "To make this quicker, maybe we should just read some of the important chapters in this book, from this time onwards?"<p>

Surprised at her level of thought, he nodded in consent. There was about five minutes where they all sat looking at each other in awkward silence while Roxy flipped through the chapters, but finally she cleared her throat, and read the title of the chapter. Relieved, everyone who was still standing sat down, turning to face her.

"I think this chapter will be taking place in about a week. **The Beetle at Bay"**

**Harry's question was answered the very next morning. **

Hannah Abbott looked confused. "What was his question?" Everyone shrugged.

**When Hermione's Daily Prophet arrived she smoothed it out, gazed for a moment at the front page and gave a yelp that caused everyone in the vicinity to stare at her.**

Everyone from the past looked at each other, worried.

"**What?" said Harry and Ron together.**

**For an answer she spread the newspaper on the table in front of them and pointed at ten black and- white photographs that filled the whole of the front page, nine showing wizards' faces and the tenth, a witch's. Some of the people in the photographs were silently jeering; others were tapping their fingers on the frame of their pictures, looking insolent. Each picture was captioned with a name and the crime for which the person had been sent to Azkaban. **

Hermione paled. "Please just be a feature, please just be a feature…" she chanted under her breath.

**Antonin Dolohov, read the legend beneath a wizard with a long, pale, twisted face who was sneering up at Harry, convicted of the brutal murders of Gideon and Fabian Prewett.**

The Weasleys in the room from both the present and the future looked angry.

"What-?" Susan Bones started, looking at their furious faces.

"They were our uncles," Fred clarified, and Susan gave them a sympathetic look.

**Augustus Rookwood, said the caption beneath a pockmarked man with greasy hair who was leaning against the edge of his picture, looking bored, convicted of leaking Ministry of Magic secrets to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.**

The time travelers all winced and shot glares at the books, knowing that this man was the reason they never met their Uncle Fred.

**But Harry's eyes were drawn to the picture of the witch. Her face had leapt out at him the moment he had seen the page. She had long, dark hair that looked unkempt and straggly in the picture, though he had seen it sleek, thick and shining. She glared up at him through heavily lidded eyes, an arrogant, disdainful smile playing around her thin mouth. Like Sirius, she retained vestiges of great good looks, but something - perhaps Azkaban - had taken most of her beauty.**

"Beauty!" Neville scoffed, his normally kind voice trembling with uncharacteristic rage. Everyone who didn't know about Neville's parents look confused, but Hermione patted his arm comfortingly.

**Bellatrix Lestrange, convicted of the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom.**

"What?" was the general outcry from the room. Hannah Abbott stared at Neville, her green eyes filled with tears, but Neville looked down, refusing to meet her eyes.

"Please, just keep reading," he told Roxy quietly.

**Hermione nudged Harry and pointed at the headline over the pictures, which Harry, concentrating on Bellatrix, had not yet read.**

**MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN**

Again, there were many horrified gasps, but this time there was terror mixed in too.

"And this is happening in a week?" Luna asked, and many jumped having forgotten she was there. After her question had sunk in, there was even more panic in the room, as most of the people had forgotten how soon this was taking place.

**MINISTRY FEARS BLACK IS 'RALLYING POINT' FOR OLD DEATH EATERS**

"_What?"_ Harry yelled. "They think that it was _Sirius?_"

"It's insane," Luna agreed, nodding her head. "Stubby Boardman is completely innocent."

"Like Loony can call anything else insane!" Cho Chang snickered to Marietta, but fell silent at the glare Padma Patil directed at her.

"But," Ernie Macmillan started, looking slightly uncomfortable as everyone turned to look at him. "It makes sense, I mean, he is the only Death Eater that's escaped from Azkaban, and-"

Roxanne quickly kept reading before her Uncle Harry started yelling again.

"**Black?" said Harry loudly. "Not -?"**

"**Shh!" whispered Hermione desperately. "Not so loud - just read it!"**

**The Ministry of Magic announced late last night that there has been a mass breakout from Azkaban.**

**Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, confirmed that ten high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the dangerous nature of these individuals.**

"**We find ourselves, most unfortunately, in the same position we were two and a half years ago when the murderer Sirius Black escaped," said Fudge last night. "Nor do we think the two breakouts are unrelated. An escape of this magnitude suggests outside help, and we must remember that Black, as the first person ever to break out of Azkaban, would be ideally placed to help others follow in his footsteps. **

"Exactly!"

"Shut up, Ernie."

**We think it likely that these individuals, who include Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, have rallied around Black as their leader.**

**We are, however, doing all we can to round up the criminals, and we beg the magical community to remain alert and cautious. On no account should any of these individuals be approached."**

Fred and George snorted. "Oh yeah, because someone's going to see Bellatrix and pop over to welcome her back!"

It did seem quite ridiculous when they put it like that, and there were quite a few snickers around the room.

"**There you are, Harry," said Ron, looking awestruck. "That's why he was happy last night."**

"Who?"

"**I don't believe this," snarled Harry, "Fudge is blaming the breakout on Sirius?"**

Angelina Johnson looked at Harry in astonishment. "You _know _Black? And you're still alive?"

Harry nodded, but didn't expand.

"**What other options does he have?" said Hermione bitterly. "He can hardly say, 'everyone, Dumbledore warned me this might happen, the Azkaban guards have joined Lord Voldemort' - stop whimpering, Ron – **

Harry laughed slightly. "Hermione, you only started saying the name about two days ago, you can't talk."

**'now Voldemort's worst supporters have broken out, too.' I mean, he's spent a good six months telling everyone you and Dumbledore are liars, hasn't he?"**

"That would be pretty funny," Fred II pointed out.

**Hermione ripped open the newspaper and began to read the report inside while Harry looked around the Great Hall. He could not understand why his fellow students were not looking scared or at least discussing the terrible piece of news on the front page, but very few of them took the newspaper every day like Hermione. **

Parvarti shrugged. "There's not really a reason to."

**There they all were, talking about homework and Quidditch and who knew what other rubbish, when outside these walls ten more Death Eaters had swollen Voldemort's ranks.**

Alicia raised an eyebrow at Harry. "Did you just call Quidditch rubbish?"

"I was just making a point," Harry said, looking slightly nervous. Alicia was scary when she was mad.

**He glanced up at the staff table. It was a different story there: Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were deep in conversation, both looking extremely grave. Professor Sprout had the Prophet propped against a bottle of ketchup and was reading the front page with such concentration that she was not noticing the gentle drip of egg yolk falling into her lap from her stationary spoon. **

The Freds, George, James, Louis, Dominique and many others all snickered at this, but were shushed by Hermione.

**Meanwhile, at the far end of the table, Professor Umbridge was tucking into a bowl of porridge. For once her pouchy toad's eyes were not sweeping the Great Hall looking for misbehaving students. She scowled as she gulped down her food and every now and then she shot a malevolent glance up the table to where Dumbledore and McGonagall were talking so intently.**

"**Oh my -" said Hermione wonderingly, still staring at the newspaper.**

"**What now?" said Harry quickly; he was feeling jumpy.**

"So are we," Anthony muttered.

"**It's… horrible," said Hermione, looking shaken. **

"And that doesn't help!" Justin added.

"If you'd all just shut up, we'd be able to hear what happened!" Ginny snapped, and Roxy, not wanting to be the target of her aunt's temper, quickly started to read again.

**She folded back page ten of the newspaper and handed it to Harry and Ron.**

**TRAGIC DEMISE OF MINISTRY OF MAGIC WORKER**

"Nobody interrupt, I want to hear this." Hermione interjected quickly.

**St. Mungo's Hospital promised a full inquiry last night after Ministry of Magic worker Broderick Bode, 49, was discovered dead in his bed, strangled by a potted-plant. Healers called to the scene were unable to revive Mr. Bode, who had been injured in a workplace accident some weeks prior to his death.**

**Healer Miriam Strout, who was in charge of Mr. Bodes ward at the time of the incident, has been suspended on full pay and was unavailable for comment yesterday, but a spokes wizard for the hospital said in a statement:**

"**St. Mungo's deeply regrets the death of Mr. Bode, whose health was improving steadily prior to this tragic accident.**

"**We have strict guidelines on the decorations permitted on our wards but it appears that Healer Strout, busy over the Christmas period, overlooked the dangers of the plant on Mr. Bode's bedside table. As his speech and mobility improved, Healer Strout encouraged Mr. Bode to look after the plant himself, unaware that it was not an innocent Flitterbloom, but a cutting of Devil's Snare which,** **when touched by the convalescent Mr. Bode, throttled him instantly.**

"**St. Mungo's is as yet unable to account for the presence of the plant on the ward and asks any witch or wizard with information to come forward."**

"Bode…" mused Ron. "Sounds familiar…"

Roxy snorted, then read the next line.

"**Bode…" said Ron. "Bode. It rings a bell…"**

"You don't change that much!" Lavender Brown laughed, and Hermione twitched slightly.

"**We saw him," Hermione whispered. "In St. Mungo's, remember? He was in the bed opposite Lockhart's, just lying there, staring at the ceiling. And we saw the Devil's Snare arrive. She - the Healer - said it was a Christmas present."**

"How could we not have recognized Devil's Snare? We saw it before, we could have prevented it!" Harry said in frustration.

"When did you see Devil's Snare before?" Katie Bell asked curiously, even more intrigued by the quick reply of 'first year'.

**Harry looked back at the story. A feeling of horror was rising like bile in his throat.**

"**How come we didn't recognize Devils Snare? We've seen it before… we could've stopped this from happening."**

"No comments," Roxy said sharply, wanting to get this chapter over with. It was taking forever!

"**Who expects Devils Snare to turn up in a hospital disguised as a pot plant?" said Ron sharply. "It's not our fault, whoever sent it to the bloke is to blame! They must be a real prat, why didn't they check what they were buying?"**

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid, Ronald, I doubt someone could put Devils Snare in a pot and not know it would try to kill whoever touches it. It was a murder…" she trailed off, already thinking through ideas.

"**Oh, come on, Ron!" said Hermione shakily. "I don't think anyone could put Devils Snare in a pot and not realize it tries to kill whoever touches it? This - this was murder… a clever murder, as well… if the plant was sent anonymously, how's anyone ever going to find out who did it?"**

"Great, now Aunt Hermione's doing it too," Lorcan whispered to Dominique, and she laughed quietly.

**Harry was not thinking about Devil's Snare. He was remembering taking the lift down to the ninth level of the Ministry on the day of his hearing and the sallow-faced man who had got in on the. Atrium level.**

"**I met Bode," he said slowly. "I saw him at the Ministry with your dad."**

**Ron's mouth fell open.**

"Well I didn't expect something like that!" Ron huffed, glaring at the people who were snickering.

"**I've heard Dad talk about him at home! He was an Unspeakable - he worked in the Department of Mysteries!"**

**They looked at each other for a moment, then Hermione pulled the newspaper back towards her, closed it, glared for a moment at the pictures of the ten escaped Death Eaters on the front, then leapt to her feet.**

"**Where are you going?" said Ron, startled.**

"**To send a letter," said Hermione, swinging her bag on to her shoulder. "It… well, I don't know whether… but it's worth trying… and I'm the only one who can."**

"I hate it when she does that," Ron grumbled, and Harry nodded in agreement.

"Honestly, would it kill you to tell us what you're doing for once?" Harry questioned his friend, who just crossed her arms and ignored him.

"**I hate it when she does that," grumbled Ron,**

Padma glared at Colin Creevey who had opened his mouth to comment, and he hurriedly shut it again.

**as he and Harry got up from the table and made their own, slower way out of the Great Hall. "Would it kill her to tell us what she's up to for once? It'd take her about ten more seconds - hey, Hagrid!"**

"Hagrid!" Dennis beamed.

**Hagrid was standing beside the doors into the Entrance Hall, waiting for a crowd of Ravenclaws to pass. He was still as heavily bruised as he had been on the day he had come back from his mission to the giants and there was a new cut right across the bridge of his nose.**

"**All righ', you two?" he said, trying to muster a smile but managing only a kind of pained grimace.**

"**Are you okay, Hagrid?" asked Harry, following him as he lumbered after the Ravenclaws.**

"**Fine, fine," said Hagrid with a feeble assumption of airiness; he waved a hand and narrowly missed concussing a frightened-looking Professor Vector, who was passing. **

Dominique burst into laughter, attracting many curious stares. "It's like the- the- Remember?" she choked out, hitting Lorcan's arm to emphasize her point.

He looked confused for a second, before remembering something and laughing almost as hysterically as the girl beside him. "The mango- in the fruit basket-!" Lysander caught on after a second, and the rest of the room just stared at them for a few minutes until they calmed down.

"Are you going to tell us what that was about?" Michael Corner raised an eyebrow.

Dom shook her head, still gasping for air while Victoire frowned at her sister with disapproval. _She's never going to get a boyfriend acting like that!_

**"Jus' busy, yeh know, usual stuff lessons ter prepare - couple o' salamanders got scale rot - an' I'm on probation," he mumbled.**

"WHAT?" was the general outcry, closely followed by mutterings about devil toads.

"**You're on probation?" said Ron very loudly, so that many of the passing students looked around curiously. "Sorry - I mean - you're on probation?" he whispered.**

"**Yeah," said Hagrid. "S'no more'n I expected, ter tell yeh the truth. Yeh migh' not've picked up on it, bu' that inspection didn' go too well, yeh know… **

"We never would have guessed." Scorpius drawled sarcastically, causing everyone who forgot he was there to jump.

"Shh, Scorpius." Rose hissed to her friend, looking at the angry faces nervously.

**anyway," he sighed deeply. "Bes' go an' rub a bit more chilli powder on them salamanders or their tails'll be hangin' off 'em next. See yeh, Harry… Ron…"**

**He trudged away, out of the front doors and down the stone steps into the damp grounds. Harry watched him go, wondering how much more bad news he could stand.**

**The fact that Hagrid was now on probation became common knowledge within the school over the next few days, but to Harry's indignation, hardly anybody appeared to be upset about it; indeed, some people, Draco Malfoy prominent among them, seemed positively gleeful.**

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Of course he is!" she huffed indignantly, leaning back against her boyfriend. Michael put his arm around her, but quickly withdrew it when he received death glares from Ginny's brothers. Scorpius wanted to defend his father, but there wasn't really anything to say that would justify his actions.

**As for the freakish death of an obscure Department of Mysteries employee in St. Mungo's, Harry, Ron and Hermione seemed to be the only people who knew or cared.**

**There was only one topic of conversation in the corridors now: the ten escaped Death Eaters, whose story had finally filtered through the school from those few people who read the newspapers. Rumors were flying that some of the convicts had been spotted in Hogsmeade, that they were supposed to be hiding out in the Shrieking Shack and that they were going to break into Hogwarts, just as Sirius Black had once done.**

Hermione looked surprised. "How did they know that's where Sirius was hiding?"

"Snape probably told them while he was announcing that Lupin was a werewolf." Harry said bitterly. Albus Severus looked around uneasily. Why did it seem like his father hated the man that his son was named after?

**Those who came from wizarding families had grown up hearing the names of these Death Eaters spoken with almost as much fear as Voldemorts; the crimes they had committed during the days of Voldemort's reign of terror were legendary. There were relatives of their victims among the Hogwarts students, who now found themselves the unwilling objects of a gruesome sort of reflected fame as they walked the corridors: Susan Bones, whose uncle, aunt and cousins had all died at the hands of one of the ten, said miserably during Herbology that she now had a good idea what it felt like to be Harry.**

Harry smiled slightly at Susan, who was looking at the ground now.

"**And I don't know how you stand it - it's horrible," she said bluntly, dumping far too much dragon manure on her tray of Screechsnap seedlings, causing them to wriggle and squeak in discomfort.**

Neville looked at her in horror. "Don't take it out on them!"

**It was true that Harry was the subject of much renewed muttering and pointing in the corridors these days, yet he thought he detected a slight difference in the tone of the whisperers' voices.**

**They sounded curious rather than hostile now, and once or twice he was sure he overheard snatches of conversation that suggested that the speakers were not satisfied with the Prophets version of how and why ten Death Eaters had managed to break out of the Azkaban fortress. In their confusion and fear, these doubters now seemed to be turning to the only other explanation available to them: the one that Harry and Dumbledore had been expounding since the previous year.**

Most of the people in the room grinned at the good news.

"At least they don't think I'm a nutter now," Harry muttered.

"I doubt many of them thought you were crazy to begin with. Right now they are just too frightened to accept what they know is the truth, so they instead are choosing to believe the easier option, which is what the Daily Prophet is saying." Luna spoke up.

Cho rolled her eyes again, but many of the other teenagers considered her theory.

**It was not only the students' mood that had changed. It was now quite common to come across two or three teachers conversing in low, urgent whispers in the corridors, breaking off their conversations the moment they saw students approaching.**

"**They obviously can't talk freely in the staff room any more," said Hermione in a low voice, as she, Harry and Ron passed Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout huddled together outside the Charms classroom one day. "Not with Umbridge there."**

"**Reckon they know anything new?" said Ron, gazing back over his shoulder at the three teachers.**

"**If they do, we're not going to hear about it, are we?" said Harry angrily. "Not after Decree… what number are we on now?" For new notices had appeared on the house noticeboards the morning after news of the Azkaban breakout:**

Everyone groaned. "More of them?" Terry Boot complained.

**BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS**

**Teachers are hereby banned from giving students any information that is not strictly related to the subjects they are paid to teach.**

**The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-six.**

**Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor**

James, Fred, Louis and Roxy glanced at each other. "I wish we had that rule!" Louis said wistfully.

"The teachers couldn't yell at us for turning their hair blue anymore," Roxy agreed.

Fred and George stared at them for a second, before hurriedly writing down the suggestion on a piece of parchment.

**This latest Decree had been the subject of a great number of jokes among the students. Lee Jordan had pointed out to Umbridge that by the terms of the new rule she was not allowed to tell Fred and George off for playing Exploding Snap in the back of the class.**

"**Exploding Snap's got nothing to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor! That's not information relating to your subject!"**

"Exactly!" Lily grinned.

**When Harry next saw Lee, the back of his hand was bleeding rather badly. Harry recommended essence of Murtlap.**

Many of the D.A. members winced and shot Lee sympathetic looks, many of them having had detention a number of times for 'believing ridiculous lies'.

**Harry had thought the breakout from Azkaban might have humbled Umbridge a little, that she might have been abashed at the catastrophe that had occurred right under the nose of her beloved Fudge. **

"As if," Katie snorted. "If anything, it'll just make her even more angry and controlling."

**It seemed, however, to have only intensified her furious desire to bring every aspect of life at Hogwarts under her personal control. She seemed determined at the very least to achieve a sacking before long, and the only question was whether it would be Professor Trelawney or Hagrid who went first.**

Harry felt kind of bad for hoping it was Trelawney that went first, but he would much rather Hagrid stayed if only one of them had to go.

**Every single Divination and Care of Magical Creatures lesson was now conducted in the presence of Umbridge and her clipboard.**

**She lurked by the fire in the heavily perfumed tower room, interrupting Professor Trelawney's increasingly hysterical talks with difficult questions about ornithomancy and heptomology, insisting that she predicted students' answers before they gave them and demanding that she demonstrate her skill at the crystal ball, the tea leaves and the rune stones in turn. Harry thought Professor Trelawney might soon crack under the strain.**

Even Rose and Hermione, who were under the strong belief that Divination was utter rubbish, looked sympathetic towards the rather flamboyant professor.

**Several times he passed her in the corridors - in itself a very unusual occurrence as she generally remained in her tower room - muttering wildly to herself, wringing her hands and shooting terrified glances over her shoulder, and all the while giving off a powerful smell of cooking sherry. If he had not been so worried about Hagrid, he would have felt sorry for her - but if one of them was to be ousted from their job, there could be only one choice for Harry as to who should remain.**

Lavender and Parvarti glared at Harry.

**Unfortunately, Harry could not see that Hagrid was putting up a better show than Trelawney.**

**Though he seemed to be following Hermione's advice and had shown them nothing more frightening than a Crup — a creature indistinguishable from a Jack Russell terrier except for its forked tail - since before Christmas, he too seemed to have lost his nerve. He was oddly distracted and jumpy during lessons, losing the thread of what he was saying to the class, answering questions wrongly, and all the time glancing anxiously at Umbridge.**

Ron groaned. "That's not going to help, Hagrid!"

**He was also more distant with Harry, Ron and Hermione than he had ever been before, and had expressly forbidden them to visit him after dark.**

"**If she catches yeh, it'll be all of our necks on the line," he told them flatly, and with no desire to do anything that might jeopardize his job further they abstained from walking down to his hut in the evenings.**

"Well, I guess that makes sense." Hermione sighed.

**It seemed to Harry that Umbridge was steadily depriving him of everything that made his life at Hogwarts worth living: visits to Hagrid's house, letters from Sirius, his Firebolt and Quidditch.**

**He took his revenge the only way he could - by redoubling his efforts for the D.A.**

Cue cheering from everyone in the room.

**Harry was pleased to see that all of them, even Zacharias Smith,**

Smith raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you're not the most enthusiastic of the members," Harry explained quickly.

**had been spurred on to work harder than ever by the news that ten more Death Eaters were now on the loose, but in nobody was this improvement more pronounced than in Neville. **

Hannah beamed at the round-faced boy beside her, and he turned slightly pink.

**The news of his parents' attackers' escape had wrought a strange and even slightly alarming change in him. He had not once mentioned his meeting with Harry, Ron and Hermione on the closed ward in St. Mungo's and, taking their lead from him, they had kept quiet about it too. Nor had he said anything on the subject of Bellatrix and her fellow torturers' escape. In fact, Neville barely spoke during the D.A. meetings any more, but worked relentlessly on every new jinx and counter-curse Harry taught them, his plump face **

Harry mumbled an apology, but Neville just waved it off.

**screwed up in concentration, apparently indifferent to injuries or accidents and working harder than anyone else in the room. He was improving so fast it was quite unnerving and when Harry taught them the Shield Charm - a means of deflecting minor jinxes so that they rebounded upon the attacker - only Hermione mastered the charm faster than Neville.**

Neville looked shocked, as did many of the others in the room.

Lysander smiled vaguely at him. "You probably just lacked confidence and needed a more powerful motivation." Many people nodded, and Luna beamed at her son.

**Harry would have given a great deal to be making as much progress at Occlumency as Neville was making during the D.A. meetings.**

**Harry's sessions with Snape, which had started badly enough, were not improving. On the contrary Harry felt he was getting worse with every lesson.**

"You're getting Occlumency lessons from Snape?" Susan questioned. Harry nodded, looking confused, and she added, "Wouldn't it be better to have someone who doesn't hate you try and teach it to you?"

**Before he had started studying Occlumency, his scar had prickled occasionally, usually during the night, or else following one of those strange flashes of Voldemort's thoughts or mood that he experienced every now and then. Nowadays, however, his scar hardly ever stopped prickling, and he often felt lurches of annoyance or cheerfulness that were unrelated to what was happening to him at the time, which were always accompanied by a particularly painful twinge from his scar. He had the horrible impression that he was slowly turning into a kind of aerial that was tuned in to tiny fluctuations in Voldemorts mood, and he was sure he could date this increased sensitivity firmly from his first Occlumency lesson with Snape. What was more, he was now dreaming about walking down the corridor towards the entrance to the Department of Mysteries almost every night, dreams which always culminated in him standing longingly in front of the plain black door.**

"**Maybe it's a bit like an illness," said Hermione, looking concerned when Harry confided in her and Ron. "A fever or something. It has to get worse before it gets better."**

"That would be nice," Harry muttered. "But it's so not going to happen."

"**The lessons with Snape are making it worse," said Harry flatly. "I'm getting sick of my scar hurting and I'm getting bored with walking down that corridor every night." He rubbed his forehead angrily. "I just wish the door would open, I'm sick of standing staring at it -"**

"**That's not funny," said Hermione sharply. "Dumbledore doesn't want you to have dreams about that corridor at all, or he wouldn't have asked Snape to teach you Occlumency. You're just going to have to work a bit harder in your lessons."**

"**I am working!" said Harry nettled. "You try it some time - Snape trying to get inside your head - it's not a bundle of laughs, you know!"**

"**Maybe…" said Ron slowly.**

"**Maybe what?" said Hermione, rather snappishly.**

"**Maybe it's not Harry's fault he can't close his mind," said Ron darkly.**

"**What do you mean?" said Hermione.**

**"Well, maybe Snape isn't really trying to help Harry…"**

"Don't be ridiculous Ron!" Hermione snapped. "Think about how many times we thought it was Snape and were wrong!"

Ron opened his mouth to snap back, but Roxy started reading again, knowing fully well how long their fights went on for.

**Harry and Hermione stared at him. Ron looked darkly and meaningfully from one to the other.**

"**Maybe," he said again, in a lower voice, "he's actually trying to open Harry's mind a bit wider… make it easier for You-Know —"**

"**Shut up, Ron," said Hermione angrily. "How many times have you suspected Snape, and when have you ever been right? Dumbledore trusts him, he works for the Order, that ought to be enough."**

"**He used to be a Death Eater," said Ron stubbornly. "And we've never seen proof that he really swapped sides."**

"**Dumbledore trusts him," Hermione repeated. "And if we can't trust Dumbledore, we can't trust anyone."**

**With so much to worry about and so much to do - startling amounts of homework that frequently kept the fifth-years working until past midnight, secret D.A. sessions and regular classes with Snape - January seemed to be passing alarmingly fast. Before Harry knew it, February had arrived, bringing with it wetter and warmer weather and the prospect of the second Hogsmeade visit of the year. Harry had had very little time to spare for conversations with Cho since they had agreed to visit the village together, but suddenly found himself facing a Valentine's Day spent entirely in her company.**

Cho blushed slightly, and Marietta glared at Harry. "You make it sound like a bad thing!" she remarked sharply, and Harry looked embarrassed.

"I'm sure he's just nervous that he might mess things up," Luna pointed out, and Harry smiled gratefully at her.

**On the morning of the fourteenth he dressed particularly carefully. He and Ron arrived at breakfast just in time for the arrival of the post owls. Hedwig was not there - not that Harry had expected her - but Hermione was tugging a letter from the beak of an unfamiliar brown owl as they sat down.**

"**And about time! If it hadn't come today…" she said, eagerly tearing open the envelope and pulling out a small piece of parchment. Her eyes sped from left to right as she read through the message and a grimly pleased expression spread across her face.**

"**Listen, Harry," she said, looking up at him, "this is really important. Do you think you could meet me in the Three Broomsticks around midday?"**

Cho's faint smile immediately vanished. "You're asking him to meet you in the middle of our date? What for?"

Hermione shrugged, pondering the possibilities. "I think I may be- Yes, that makes sense…" she trailed off, lost in thought.

"**Well… I dunno," said Harry uncertainly. "Cho might be expecting me to spend the whole day with her. We never said what we were going to do."**

"**Well, bring her along if you must," said Hermione urgently. "But will you come?"**

"Ooh…" Padma winced. "That's not going to go over well."

"What do you mean?" Hermione and Harry asked at the same time.

"Well, it's going to seem like Harry's leaving to go on a second date," Padma explained gently, and Harry looked slightly embarrassed.

"But- Hermione's like a sister to me!" he exclaimed, not noticing both Ron and Cho looking relieved.

"Yes, but she doesn't know that.""

"**Well… all right, but why?"**

"**I haven't got time to tell you now, I've got to answer this quickly."**

**And she hurried out of the Great Hall, the letter clutched in one hand and a piece of toast in the other.**

"**Are you coming?" Harry asked Ron, but he shook his head, looking glum.**

"**I can't come into Hogsmeade at all; Angelina wants a full day's training. Like it's going to help; we're the worst team I've ever seen. You should see Sloper and Kirke, they're pathetic, even worse than I am." He heaved a great sigh. "I dunno why Angelina won't just let me resign."**

Angelina turned her gaze onto Ron sharply. "Of course I won't let you resign. You'll be fine if you don't let the Slytherins get to you! Build up your self-esteem more!"

Ron nodded hastily, looking terrified.

"**It's because you're good when you're on form, that's why," said Harry irritably.**

Angelina nodded. "That too."

**He found it very hard to be sympathetic to Ron's plight, when he himself would have given almost anything to be playing in the forthcoming match against Hufflepuff. Ron seemed to have noticed Harrys tone, because he did not mention Quidditch again during breakfast, and there was a slight frostiness in the way they said goodbye to each other shortly afterwards.**

"Sorry," Ron apologized.

**Ron departed for the Quidditch pitch and Harry, after attempting to flatten his hair while staring at his reflection in the back of a teaspoon, proceeded alone to the Entrance Hall to meet Cho, feeling very apprehensive and wondering what on earth they were going to talk about.**

Harry suddenly realized that they were going to read about the whole date, and quickly turned to Roxy. "Can we skip this part?"

Roxanne grinned devilishly, and shook her head.

**She was waiting for him a little to the side of the oak front doors, looking very pretty with her hair tied back in a long ponytail. Harry's feet seemed to be too big for his body as he walked towards her and he was suddenly horribly aware of his arms and how stupid they must look swinging at his sides.**

There were a lot of chuckles around the room at this.

Fred- or was it George? - looked at Harry with mock sympathy. "Oh Harry, you should know by now that you'll look stupid no matter where your arms are."

"**Hi," said Cho slightly breathlessly.**

"**Hi," said Harry.**

**They stared at each other for a moment, then Harry said, "Well - er — shall we go, then?"**

"Awkward," Teddy sang under his breath, earning a slight giggle from Victoire.

"**Oh - yes…"**

**They joined the queue of people being signed out by Filch, occasionally catching each other's eye and grinning shiftily, but not talking to each other.**

"You have to talk to her, dad!" Lily Luna exclaimed, and Harry blinked in surprise, not used to being referred to that way.

**Harry was relieved when they reached the fresh air, finding it easier to walk along in silence than just stand about looking awkward. It was a fresh, breezy sort of a day and as they passed the Quidditch stadium Harry glimpsed Ron and Ginny skimming along over the stands and felt a horrible pang that he was not up there with them.**

"**You really miss it, don't you?" said Cho.**

**He looked round and saw her watching him.**

"**Yeah," sighed Harry. "I do."**

"**Remember the first time we played against each other, in the third year?" she asked him.**

Harry grinned at Cho. It wasn't so bad so far…

"**Yeah," said Harry, grinning. "You kept blocking me."**

"**And Wood told you not to be a gentleman and knock me off my broom if you had to," said Cho, smiling reminiscently. "I heard he got taken on by Pride of Portree, is that right?"**

Katie Bell snorted. "He would kill you if he heard that."

"**Nah, it was Puddlemere United; I saw him at the World Cup last year."**

"**Oh, I saw you there, too, remember? We were on the same campsite. It was really good, wasn't it?"**

**The subject of the Quidditch World Cup carried them all the way down the drive and out through the gates. Harry could hardly believe how easy it was to talk to her - no more difficult, in fact, than talking to Ron and Hermione -and he was just starting to feel confident and cheerful when a large gang of Slytherin girls passed them, including Pansy Parkinson.**

Harry cursed under his breath. It had been going so well, too!

The future kids all were still wondering how their father/uncle could ever like someone other than Ginny.

"**Potter and Chang!" screeched Pansy, to a chorus of snide giggles. "Urgh, Chang, I don't think much of your taste… at least Diggory was good-looking!"**

Hannah gasped. "That's just cruel!"

Cho looked to the ground, her good mood gone as a tear rolled down her cheek.

**The girls sped up, talking and shrieking in a pointed fashion with many exaggerated glances back at Harry and Cho, leaving an embarrassed silence in their wake. Harry could think of nothing else to say about Quidditch, and Cho, slightly flushed, was watching her feet.**

"**So… where d'you want to go?" Harry asked as they entered Hogsmeade. **

Molly shook her head. "No, Uncle Harry, you're supposed to plan where to go before you take her out!"

"Er, I'll keep that in mind." Harry found it slightly odd to be given dating tips from his future nieces and nephews, but shook it off and focused back on the book.

**The High Street was full of students ambling up and down, peering into the shop windows and messing about together on the pavements.**

"**Oh… I don't mind," said Cho, shrugging. "Urn… shall we just have a look in the shops or something?"**

**They wandered towards Dervish and Banges.**

"How romantic," George snickered.

"** A large poster had been stuck up in the window and a few Hogsmeaders were looking at it. They moved aside when Harry and Cho approached and Harry found himself staring once more at the pictures of the ten escaped Death Eaters. The poster, By Order of the Ministry of Magic, offered a thousand-Galleon reward to any witch or wizard with information leading to the recapture of any of the convicts pictured.**

"**It's funny, isn't it," said Cho in a low voice, gazing up at the pictures of the Death Eaters, "remember when that Sirius Black escaped, and there were Dementors all over Hogsmeade looking for him? And now ten Death Eaters are on the loose and there are no Dementors anywhere…"**

Hermione looked thoughtful. "You're right, that is strange."

"**Yeah," said Harry, tearing his eyes away from Bellatrix Lestrange's face to glance up and down the High Street. "Yeah, that is weird."**

**He wasn't sorry that there were no Dementors nearby, but now he came to think of it, their absence was highly significant. They had not only let the Death Eaters escape, they weren't bothering to look for them… it looked as though they really were outside Ministry control now.**

"That's a blow for the Ministry," Justin pointed out. "Now they have to admit they've lost control of the creatures that symbolize fear itself."

**The ten escaped Death Eaters were staring out of every shop window he and Cho passed. It started to rain as they passed Scrivenshaft's; cold, heavy drops of water kept hitting Harry's face and the back of his neck.**

"**Um… d'you want to get a coffee?" said Cho tentatively, as the rain began to fall more heavily.**

"**Yeah, all right," said Harry, looking around. "Where?"**

"**Oh, there's a really nice place just up here; haven't you ever been to Madam Puddifoot's?"**

"NO!" yelled all the boys along with many of the girls.

"That place gives me nightmares!" James complained.

"There's so much… pink." Roxanne shuddered.

"Waaay too frilly." Dominique added.

"I like it!" Cho protested, Lavender, Marietta and Parvart nodding in agreement.

"I'm sure it's very… nice." Harry agreed weakly, brightening up at the smile Cho directed at him.

**she said brightly,** **leading him up a side road and into a small teashop that Harry had never noticed before. It was a cramped, steamy little place where everything seemed to have been decorated with frills or bows. Harry was reminded unpleasantly of Umbridge's office.**

Cho's smile turned into a frown. "It's not that bad…" she muttered.

"**Cute, isn't it?" said Cho happily.**

"**Er… yeah," said Harry untruthfully.**

"**Look, she's decorated it for Valentine's Day!" said Cho, indicating a number of golden cherubs that were hovering over each of the small, circular tables, occasionally throwing pink confetti over the occupants.**

Half the room shuddered.

"**Aaah…"**

**They sat down at the last remaining table, which was over by the steamy window. Roger Davies, the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain was sitting about a foot and a half away with a pretty blonde girl. They were holding hands. The sight made Harry feel uncomfortable, particularly when, looking around the teashop, he saw that it was full of nothing but couples, all of them holding hands. Perhaps Cho would expect him to hold her hand.**

Lorcan snickered. "Oh, the horror." Dominique laughed quietly for a second, before falling silent under her sister's reprimanding glare.

"Toire," Teddy muttered under his breath, "let her be a kid for once." Victoire turned her glare onto him before turning pointedly away from him.

"**What can I get you, m'dears?" said Madam Puddifoot, a very stout woman with a shiny black bun, squeezing between their table and Roger Davies's with great difficulty.**

"**Two coffees, please," said Cho.**

**In the time it took for their coffees to arrive, Roger Davies and his girlfriend had started kissing over their sugar bowl. Harry wished they wouldn't; he felt that Davies was setting a standard with which Cho would soon expect him to compete.**

Both Cho and Harry were steadily growing redder amongst the laughter from their friends.

**He felt his face growing hot and tried staring out of the window, but it was so steamed up he couldn't see the street outside. To postpone the moment when he would have to look at Cho, he stared up at the ceiling as though examining the paintwork and received a handful of confetti in the face from their hovering cherub.**

**After a few more painful minutes, Cho mentioned Umbridge. Harry seized on the subject with relief and they passed a few happy moments abusing her, but the subject had already been so thoroughly canvassed during D.A. meetings it did not last very long. Silence fell again. Harry was very conscious of the slurping noises coming from the table next door and cast wildly around for something else to say.**

**"Er… listen, d'you want to come with me to the Three Broomsticks at lunchtime? I'm meeting Hermione Granger there."**

There were many groans at this. "Harry! You can't just say it like that!" Hermione scolded.

**Cho raised her eyebrows.**

"**You're meeting Hermione Granger? Today?"**

"**Yeah. Well, she asked me to, so I thought I would. D'you want to come with me? She said it wouldn't matter if you did."**

"**Oh… well… that was nice of her."**

**But Cho did not sound as though she thought it was nice at all. On the contrary, her tone was cold and all of a sudden she looked rather forbidding.**

Cho looked slightly embarrassed now that she knew there was nothing going on between Harry and Hermione, and she knew that in the book she was probably going to overreact.

**A few more minutes passed in total silence, Harry drinking his coffee so fast that he would soon need a fresh cup. Beside them, Roger Davies and his girlfriend seemed glued together at the lips.**

**Cho's hand was lying on the table beside her coffee and Harry was feeling a mounting pressure to take hold of it. Just do it, he told himself, as a fount of mingled panic and excitement surged up inside his chest, just reach out and grab it. Amazing, how much more difficult it was to extend his arm twelve inches and touch her hand than it was to snatch a speeding Snitch from midair…**

Harry now resembled a rather large tomato, much to the room's amusement. Cho wasn't much better, but she had her head in her hands so that nobody could see her face.

**But just as he moved his hand forwards, Cho took hers off the table. She was now watching Roger Davies kissing his girlfriend with a mildly interested expression.**

"**He asked me out, you know," she said in a quiet voice. "A couple of weeks ago. Roger. I turned him down, though."**

"Cho!" Padma exclaimed. "That's not how you deal with it!"

Cho lowered her head even more.

**Harry, who had grabbed the sugar bowl to excuse his sudden lunging movement across the table, could not think why she was telling him this. If she wished she were sitting at the next table being heartily kissed by Roger Davies, why had she agreed to come out with him? **

Lavender shook her head. "Utterly clueless," she mumbled.

**He said nothing. Their cherub threw another handful of confetti over them; some of it landed in the last cold dregs of coffee Harry had been about to drink.**

"**I came in here with Cedric last year," said Cho.**

"Cho!" Padma exclaimed again.

**In the second or so it took for him to take in what she had said, Harry's insides had become glacial. He could not believe she wanted to talk about Cedric now, while kissing couples surrounded them and a cherub floated over their heads.**

**Cho's voice was rather higher when she spoke again.**

"**I've been meaning to ask you for ages… did Cedric - did he - m - m - mention me at all before he died?"**

Cho let out a quiet sob, and Marietta put a hand on her shoulder.

**This was the very last subject on earth Harry wanted to discuss, and least of all with Cho.**

"**Well - no -" he said quietly. "There - there wasn't time for him to say anything. Erm… so… d'you… d'you get to see a lot of Quidditch in the holidays? You support the Tornados, right?"**

Terry Boot raised an eyebrow. "Even I can change the subject better than that."

**His voice sounded falsely bright and cheery. To his horror, he saw that her eyes were swimming with tears again, just as they had been after the last D.A. meeting before Christmas.**

"**Look," he said desperately, leaning in so that nobody else could overhear, "let's not talk about Cedric right now… let's talk about something else."**

**But this, apparently, was quite the wrong thing to say.**

"**I thought," she said, tears spattering down on to the table, "I thought you'd u - u - understand! I need to talk about it! Surely you n - need to talk about it t - too! I mean, you saw it happen, d - didn't you?"**

**Everything was going nightmarishly wrong; Roger Davies's girlfriend had even unglued herself to look round at Cho crying.**

"**Well - I have talked about it," Harry said in a whisper, "to Ron and Hermione, but -"**

"**Oh, you'll talk to Hermione Granger!" she said shrilly, her face now shining with tears. Several more kissing couples broke apart to stare. "But you won't talk to me! P - perhaps it would be best if we just… just p-paid and you went and met up with Hermione G-Granger, like you obviously want to!"**

**Harry stared at her, utterly bewildered, as she seized a frilly napkin and dabbed at her shining face with it.**

Harry was beginning to get an idea of what was going on.

"**Cho?" he said weakly, wishing Roger would seize his girlfriend and start kissing her again to stop her goggling at him and Cho.**

**"Go on, leave!" she said, now crying into the napkin. "I don't know why you asked me out in the first place if you're going to make arrangements to meet other girls right after me… how many are you meeting after Hermione?"**

"**It's not like that!" said Harry, and he was so relieved at finally understanding what she was annoyed about that he laughed,** **which he realized a split second too late was also a mistake.**

"No freaking duh."

**Cho sprang to her feet. The whole tearoom was quiet and everybody was watching them now.**

"**I'll see you around, Harry" she said dramatically, and hiccoughing slightly she dashed to the door, wrenched it open and hurried off into the pouring rain.**

"**Cho!" Harry called after her, but the door had already swung shut behind her with a tuneful tinkle.**

**There was total silence within the teashop. Every eye was on Harry. He threw a Galleon down on to the table, shook pink confetti out of his hair, and followed Cho out of the door.**

**It was raining hard now and she was nowhere to be seen. He simply did not understand what had happened; half an hour ago they had been getting along fine.**

Ginny was staring at Harry curiously. After a few seconds, Harry asked, "What?"

"I'm just wondering if you're always this clueless."

"**Women!" he muttered angrily, sloshing down the rain-washed street with his hands in his pockets. **

"Excuse me?" All the girls in the room turned to glare at Harry.

"Uh- Er- I'm sorry?" he put his hands up in surrender.

**"What did she want to talk about Cedric for, anyway? Why does she always want to drag up a subject that makes her act like a human hosepipe?"**

"And enter Harry's sensitive side!" Lee Jordan announced in his commentator voice, and many people jumped, as he had been unusually quiet.

**He turned right and broke into a splashy run, and within minutes he was turning into the doorway of the Three Broomsticks. He knew he was too early to meet Hermione, but he thought it likely there would be someone in here with whom he could spend the intervening time. He shook his wet hair out of his eyes and looked around. Hagrid was sitting alone in a corner, looking morose.**

"Aw, poor Hagrid-"

"Everyone just shut up!" Roxanne yelled, getting annoyed. "I just want to get this chapter over with and I can't do that unless you all just _shut up!_"

There was silence for a second, before Lysander muttered, "Such a sweet child." Lorcan and Dominique, who were sitting on either side of him, burst into laughter.

"SHUT UP!" Roxanne screeched again, and the three immediately fell silent. They all knew how scary she could be in a temper.

"**Hi, Hagrid!" he said, when he had squeezed through the crammed tables and pulled up a chair beside him.**

**Hagrid jumped and looked down at Harry as though he barely recognized him. Harry saw that he had two fresh cuts on his face and several new bruises.**

"**Oh, it's yeh, Harry," said Hagrid. "Yeh all right?"**

"**Yeah, I'm fine," lied Harry; but, next to this battered and mournful-looking Hagrid, he felt he didn't really have much to complain about. "Er - are you okay?"**

"**Me?" said Hagrid. "Oh yeah, I'm grand, Harry, grand."**

**He gazed into the depths of his pewter tankard, which was the size of a large bucket, and sighed.**

**Harry didn't know what to say to him. They sat side by side in silence for a moment. Then Hagrid said abruptly, "In the same boat, yeh an' me, aren' we, 'Arry?"**

"**Er -" said Harry.**

"**Yeah… I've said it before… both outsiders, like," said Hagrid, nodding wisely. "An' both orphans. Yeah… both orphans."**

**He took a great swig from his tankard.**

Fred and George opened their mouths to comment, but after taking one look at the evil eye Roxanne was sending them, they decided against it.

"**Makes a diff'rence, havin' a decent family," he said. "Me dad was decent. An' your mum an' dad were decent. If they'd lived, life woulda bin diff'rent, eh?"**

"**Yeah… I s'pose," said Harry cautiously. Hagrid seemed to be in a very strange mood.**

"No duh, he's drunk," Justin mouthed, and Susan put a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles.

"**Family," said Hagrid gloomily. "Whatever yeh say, blood's important…"**

**And he wiped a trickle of it out of his eye.**

"**Hagrid," said Harry, unable to stop himself, "where are you getting all these injuries?"**

"**Eh?" said Hagrid, looking startled. "Wha' injuries?"**

"**All those!" said Harry, pointing at Hagrid's face.**

"**Oh… tha's jus' normal bumps an' bruises, Harry," said Hagrid dismissively, "I got a rough job."**

**He drained his tankard, set it back on the table and got to his feet.**

"**I'll be seein' yeh, Harry… take care now."**

**And he lumbered out of the pub looking wretched, and disappeared into the torrential rain. Harry watched him go, feeling miserable. Hagrid was unhappy and he was hiding something, but he seemed determined not to accept help. What was going on? But before Harry could think about it any further, he heard a voice calling his name.**

"**Harry! Harry, over here!"**

There was an awkward silence for a moment, before Roxy sighed. "Fine, you can all comment again."

**Hermione was waving at him from the other side of the room. He got up and made his way towards her through the crowded pub. He was still a few tables away when he realized that Hermione was not alone. She was sitting at a table with the unlikeliest pair of drinking mates he could ever have imagined:**

"Snape and Winky the house elf?"

"Buckbeak and Malfoy?"

"Umbridge and Lupin?"

**Luna Lovegood**

"Oh, I see now. That is very clever of you, Hermione." Luna commented in her dreamy voice. Hermione looked annoyed that the eccentric Ravenclaw had figured out her plan before her.

**and none other than Rita Skeeter, ex-journalist on the Daily Prophet and one of Hermione's least favorite people in the world.**

"Oh!" Hermione gasped, suddenly getting it.

"Care to share with the rest of us?" Michael asked drily, already knowing her answer.

"You'll see."

"**You're early!" said Hermione, moving along to give him room to sit down. "I thought you were with Cho, I wasn't expecting you for another hour at least!"**

Lots of groans echoed around the room.

"You said that in front of Skeeter?" Ernie asked incredulously. "She's going to have a field day!"

"Not if I can help it," Hermione said mysteriously, then gestured for Roxy to read on before anyone asked her what she meant.

**"Cho?" said Rita at once, twisting round in her seat to stare avidly at Harry. "A girl?"**

**She snatched up her crocodile-skin handbag and groped within it.**

"**It's none of your business if Harry's been with a hundred girls," Hermione told Rita coolly. "So you can put that away right now."**

Zacharias Smith snorted. "Yeah right, like that's going to work."

**Rita had been on the point of withdrawing an acid-green quill from her bag. Looking as though she had been forced to swallow Stinksap, she snapped her bag shut again.**

Lots of laughter broke out at the look on Smith's face.

"**What are you up to?" Harry asked, sitting down and staring from Rita to Luna to Hermione.**

"**Little Miss Perfect was just about to tell me when you arrived," said Rita, taking a large slurp of her drink. "I suppose I'm allowed to talk to him, am I?" she shot at Hermione.**

"**Yes, I suppose you are," said Hermione coldly.**

**Unemployment did not suit Rita.**

**The hair that had once been set in elaborate curls now hung lank and unkempt around her face. The scarlet paint on her two-inch talons was chipped and there were a couple of false jewels missing from her winged glasses. She took another great gulp of her drink and said out of the corner of her mouth, "Pretty girl, is she, Harry?"**

"**One more word about Harry's love life and the deal's off and that's a promise," said Hermione irritably.**

"I think she was talking about you, not Cho."

"Yes, I know that."

"**What deal?" said Rita, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. "You haven't mentioned a deal yet, Miss Prissy, you just told me to turn up. Oh, one of these days…" She took a deep shuddering breath.**

"**Yes, yes, one of these days you'll write more horrible stories about Harry and me," said Hermione indifferently. "Find someone who cares, why don't you?"**

Fred grinned, and George, who was closer, gave her a high five.

"**They've run plenty of horrible stories about Harry this year without my help," said Rita, shooting a sideways look at him over the top of her glass and adding in a rough whisper, "How has that made you feel, Harry? Betrayed? Distraught? Misunderstood?"**

"**He feels angry, of course," said Hermione in a hard, clear voice. "Because he's told the Minister for Magic the truth and the Minister's too much of an idiot to believe him."**

"I can answer for myself, you know." Harry told Hermione in mock irritation. She just sent him an apologetic look.

"**So you actually stick to it, do you, that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back?" said Rita, lowering her glass and subjecting Harry to a piercing stare while her finger strayed longingly to the clasp of the crocodile bag. "You stand by all this garbage Dumbledore's been telling everybody about You-Know-Who returning and you being the sole witness?"**

"**I wasn't the sole witness," snarled Harry. "There were a dozen-odd Death Eaters there as well. Want their names?"**

"**I'd love them," breathed Rita, now fumbling in her bag once more and gazing at him as though he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. "A great bold headline: 'Potter Accuses… ' A sub-heading, 'Harry Potter Names Death Eaters Still Among Us'. And then, beneath a nice big photograph of you, 'Disturbed teenage survivor of You-Know-Who's attack, Harry Potter, 15, caused outrage yesterday by accusing respectable and prominent members of the wizarding community of being Death Eaters… '"**

"Take away disturbed and that would almost be good." Justin commented.

"Oh, I don't know," Ginny teased. "I think disturbed describes him perfectly."

Harry laughed, missing the small glare directed at him from Michael Corner, who pulled his girlfriend closer to him.

**The Quick-Quotes Quill was actually in her hand and halfway to her mouth when the rapturous expression on her face died.**

"**But of course," she said, lowering the quill and looking daggers at Hermione, "Little Miss Perfect wouldn't want that story out there, would she?"**

Lee whistled lowly. "What do you _have_ on her?"

Hermione just gave him an innocent smile.

"**As a matter of fact," said Hermione sweetly, "that's exactly what Little Miss Perfect does want."**

**Rita stared at her. So did Harry. Luna, on the other hand, sang Weasley is our King dreamily under her breath and stirred her drink with a cocktail onion on a stick.**

Fred laughed, sending a grin at Luna. Ron, on the other hand, grumbled under his breath about never getting away from that song.

"**You want me to report what he says about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" Rita asked Hermione in a hushed voice.**

"**Yes, I do," said Hermione. "The true story. All the facts. Exactly as Harry reports them. He'll give you all the details, he'll tell you the names of the undiscovered Death Eaters he saw there, he'll tell you what Voldemort looks like now - oh, get a grip on yourself," she added contemptuously, throwing a napkin across the table, for, at the sound of Voldemort's name, Rita had jumped so badly she had slopped half her glass of Firewhisky down herself.**

**Rita blotted the front of her grubby raincoat, still staring at Hermione. Then she said baldly, "The Prophet wouldn't print it. In case you haven't noticed, nobody believes his cock-and-bull story. Everyone thinks he's delusional. Now, if you let me write the story from that angle -"**

"**We don't need another story about how Harry's lost his marbles!" said Hermione angrily. "We've had plenty of those already, thank you! I want him given the opportunity to tell the truth!"**

"**There's no market for a story like that," said Rita coldly.**

"**You mean the Prophet won't print it because Fudge won't let them," said Hermione irritably.**

"But the Quibbler will," Hermione added in an undertone.

**Rita gave Hermione a long, hard look. Then, leaning forwards across the table towards her, she said in a businesslike tone, "All right, Fudge is leaning on the Prophet, but it comes to the same thing. They won't print a story that shows Harry in a good light. Nobody wants to read it. It's against the public mood. This last Azkaban breakout has got people quite worried enough. People just don't want to believe You-Know-Who's back."**

"**So the Daily Prophet exists to tell people what they want to hear, does it?" said Hermione scathingly.**

**Rita sat up straight again, her eyebrows raised, and drained her glass of Firewhisky.**

**"The Prophet exists to sell itself, you silly girl," she said coldly.**

"**My dad thinks it's an awful paper," said Luna, chipping into the conversation unexpectedly.**

Dean Thomas smiled at Luna. He didn't know the odd girl very well, but he could see that she stood up for what she believed in, and that was something that sadly wasn't very common.

**Sucking on her cocktail onion, she gazed at Rita with her enormous, protuberant, slightly mad eyes. "He publishes important stories he thinks the public needs to know. He doesn't care about making money."**

**Rita looked disparagingly at Luna.**

Ginny frowned. "That's a lot better way to run a newspaper then how the Prophet does it!" she defended her friend.

"**I'm guessing your father runs some stupid little village newsletter?" she said. "Probably, Twenty- Five Ways to Mingle With Muggles and the dates of the next Bring and Fly Sale?"**

"**No," said Luna, dipping her onion back into her Gillywater, "he's the editor of The Quibbler."**

**Rita snorted so loudly that people at a nearby table looked round in alarm.**

"'**Important stories he thinks the public needs to know', eh? " she said witheringly. "I could manure my garden with the contents of that rag."**

That got nearly everyone in the room angry. Most of the D.A., though they still thought she was a bit strange, liked Luna and knew how important the Quibbler was to her. The future people just smiled inwardly, remembering how the Quibbler was now a lot more popular than the Daily Prophet.

"**Well, this is your chance to raise the tone of it a bit, isn't it?" said Hermione pleasantly. "Luna says her father's quite happy to take Harry's interview. That's who'll be publishing it."**

**Rita stared at them both for a moment, then let out a great whoop of laughter.**

"**The Quibbler!" she said, cackling. "You think people will take him seriously if he's published in The Quibbler!"**

"**Some people won't," said Hermione in a level voice. "But the Daily Prophet's version of the Azkaban breakout had some gaping holes in it. I think a lot of people will be wondering whether there isn't a better explanation of what happened, and if there's an alternative story available, even if it is published in a -" she glanced sideways at Luna, "in a - well, an unusual magazine - I think they might be rather keen to read it."**

**Rita didn't say anything for a while, but eyed Hermione shrewdly, her head a little to one side.**

"**All right, let's say for a moment I'll do it," she said abruptly. "What kind of fee am I going to get?"**

"**I don't think Daddy exactly pays people to write f or the magazine," said Luna dreamily. "They do it because it's an honor and, of course, to see their names in print."**

"She's not going to like that. Good luck getting her to do it now."

**Rita Skeeter looked as though the taste of Stinksap was strong in her mouth again as she rounded on Hermione.**

"**I'm supposed to do this for free?"**

"**Well, yes," said Hermione calmly, taking a sip of her drink. "Otherwise, as you very well know, I will inform the authorities that you are an unregistered Animagus. Of course, the Prophet might give you rather a lot for an insider's account of life in Azkaban."**

There was silence for a few seconds before nearly everyone burst into laughter.

"That's brilliant!" George choked out, gasping for air.

"Blackmailing her- We're so proud!" Fred added.

**Rita looked as though she would have liked nothing better than to seize the paper umbrella sticking out of Hermione's drink and thrust it up her nose.**

"**I don't suppose I've got any choice, have I?" said Rita, her voice shaking slightly. She opened her crocodile bag once more, withdrew a piece of parchment, and raised her Quick-Quotes Quill.**

"**Daddy will be pleased," said Luna brightly. A muscle twitched in Rita's jaw.**

"**Okay, Harry?" said Hermione, turning to him. "Ready to tell the public the truth?"**

"**I suppose," said Harry, watching Rita balancing the Quick-Quotes Quill at the ready on the parchment between them.**

"**Fire away, then, Rita," said Hermione serenely, fishing a cherry out from the bottom of her glass.**

"And that's the end!" Roxy finished, closing the book with a snap.

* * *

><p>AN- Thanks for reading! Please review! *holds up the bribe jar again*


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